THE STRUCTURE OF A SYNTHETIC ARABINAN

Hydrolysis of the fully methylated synthetic arabinan showed it to have a highly branched structure in which about 16% of the terminal units were furanose and 2,3-di-O-methyl-L-arabinose was the principal di-O-methyl ether. A method has been developed whereby mixtures of isomeric di- or mono-O-methyl arabinoses may be qualitatively analyzed by successive borohydride reduction, periodate oxidation, and borohydride reduction. The resulting fragments may be separated directly by vapor phase chromatography or by paper chromatography after demethylation.